


Something So Right

by esteefee



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-03
Updated: 2009-01-03
Packaged: 2017-10-20 09:06:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/211088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esteefee/pseuds/esteefee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which nothing much at all happens. And Rodney recites <i>Green eggs and ham.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Something So Right

  
_When something goes right_  
Oh, it's likely to lose me  
It's apt to confuse me  
Because it's such an unusual sight  
I swear I can't get used to something so right  
Something so right.  
      —Paul Simon  



  


"That's eight in a row," Rodney muttered at him as they walked back toward the gate. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking a gift-basket in the mouth, especially not one filled with not-quite-coffee beans, but this is getting ridiculous."

John nodded, feeling a little uneasy himself. Eight successful, peaceful missions was pretty much an Atlantis record. It might even be an SGC record—he'd have to check with Carter when they got back.

"Maybe we accidentally entered a dimensional bridge and we're trapped in an alternate universe without knowing it. A really freaky universe where nothing goes wrong."

"I think I'd know if we'd crossed dimensions," Rodney said with a huff. But he still looked a little worried, and John saw him tapping at his computer pad a few minutes later.

Rodney was maybe the only person he knew who could walk and compute at the same time.

"But surely this is a good thing?" Teyla asked, entirely reasonably, but it just made the itch at the back of John's neck grow stronger.

"I could start a fight," Ronon said. "We could find a bar somewhere..."

The funny thing was it wasn't just AR-1 being affected. All the other teams were doing great as well. Atlantis was well-stocked with fantastic new foods and supplies—so well stocked, in fact, that the _Daedalus_ had delayed its most recent supply run.

If it weren't so great having meat for dinner every night and turkey-like sandwiches for lunch, John would almost be suspicious.

But it was also nice not to be in the infirmary, or have anything aching or limp-inducing going on, and his favorite part of all was being able to breathe freely and sleep in any position he liked without any cracked ribs or broken collar bones.

So he almost didn't mind being bored out of his fucking skull.

:::

On M2B-908 they met a very nice race of highly-evolved fish named the Peorians. The Peorians were apparently another experiment of the Ancients gone totally bizarre—they walked around on land, but lived in a gigantic dome where all the air was kept incredibly moist so as not to dry out their mutated lungs.

Rodney was fascinated and named the lead guy Aquaman, even though his name was actually Aquinos and Teyla gave Rodney the stink-eye whenever he got it wrong. But, that was the weird thing—even though Rodney got it wrong repeatedly, and was a little overenthusiastic discussing the technology that maintained the dome, the Peorians and specifically Aquinos did not take offense or lock them into a damp dungeon with moss growing on the walls. Instead, they threw a very nice luncheon for the team. The main entrée included fish, which made Rodney roll his eyes in preparation of a comment John was sure would end up with at least one of the team skewered by the very lethal-looking spear-guns the council guard carried around.

But Ronon stretched to yawn at that instant and accidentally elbowed Rodney in the side of the head. Catastrophe was thus averted amid mild cursing and threats of screwing with Ronon's hot water supply back on Atlantis.

After lunch, Rodney, in his examination using the specialized scanner he'd invented way back when, also discovered a conduit switch that was about to short out and destroy the heat sink that the Peorians' environmental controls absolutely depended on.

The Peorian lead scientist, Quantaff, was ecstatically grateful; his long, catfish-whiskery things trembled while he explained to Aquinos how lucky they were the Atlanteans had stopped by to brilliantly diagnose the issue. Rodney ended up giving Quantaff one of his scanners, an act of generosity that had John rubbing his eyes in disbelief.

The Peorians, in turn, gifted the team with a very tasty strain of dried lichen, cases full of it, to take back to Atlantis. "Very high in protein," Aquinos insisted, "And crumbled and scrambled with _voos_ it makes a delicious and nutritious breakfast."

"Voos," Teyla asked, her eyes sharp.

"Oh, yes. We keep _freeks_ in cages to provide the voos. The freeks subsist on the lichen."

It was weird, John thought, that the Ancient translators had decided lichen was lichen, but voos could only be voos.

The lichen was bright blue and tasted like ham. Which was great if you liked ham, which John did. Voos, as it turned out, were eggs, sort of, if eggs came with green yolks. Which, of course, led to a recitation of _Green Eggs and Ham_ by Rodney on the way back to the gate. The Peorian servants trailing behind with the crates of voos and lichen and a trio of freeks seemed to be amused by the story and calling out for another recitation.

John was just amazed Rodney had bothered to memorize anything considered actual literature, and said so, which earned him a haughty sniff and, "I consider myself to be a Renaissance man," from Rodney.

When they got back, Carter held up her fingers signaling 'nine' and gave John a wink from the gateroom balcony. John shrugged, miming, _What can you do? I can't help it if all of a sudden Pegasus has turned into a Disney movie._

For team night that evening John hunted around until he dug up DVD copies of _Horton Hears a Who_ and _The Cat in the Hat_ so Ronon and Teyla could be introduced to Dr. Seuss. They agreed the poetry was very unusual. Then a weird silence fell over everyone.

"Quiet," John remarked eventually.

"It's weird," Ronon said, yawning. "Nothing happening these days. I'm bored."

"Yeah, me, too."

"I'm not," Rodney said sharply. "I can stand a month where aliens aren't trying to eat us or imprison us or invade Atlantis."

"Yes, Rodney. But it is very strange, isn't it?" Teyla was sitting cross-legged on the floor and leaning against John's legs. John had felt her slight weight all during the movies and hadn't wanted to shift and disturb her.

"I wonder if this is how Earth people live." Ronon sounded wistful, almost. John looked over at him—he had one hand resting on Teyla's shoulder, and Rodney was on his other side, elbows overlapping. Rodney's feet were propped up on John's side table and he was blinking slowly like he was ready to go to sleep.

John felt pretty sleepy, too, and content, if in a slightly uneasy way. Tomorrow this could all be gone. Tomorrow they could be attacked, kidnapped, wraith-sucked. One or all of them could die in any number of really messy ways.

Part of him really missed the excitement. But the other part of him, the part that always felt responsible, was resting in the quiet. They were all safe. His team was safe, and sleepy, and content.

"I'm glad you guys are here," John found himself saying.

Teyla dropped her head back on John's knees and gave him an upside-down smile. Ronon bumped his shoulder against John's and matched Teyla's smile, and Rodney glared at all of them before huffing, "It's mutual, I'm sure. Colonel."

"God bless us, every one." John smirked at Rodney's eye roll.

"I wonder if we can have some of those yoos with lichen tomorrow for breakfast," Ronon said, and it was the last thing John heard before he nodded off.

  


_End._  



End file.
